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p- ISSN: 2708-2105
p- ISSN: 2709-9458
L-ISSN: 2708-2105
DOI: 10.31703/gmcr.2021(VI-I).09
|
Vol. VI, No. I (Winter 2021)
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.31703/gmcr.2021(VI-I).09
|
Pages: 108 – 116
Citation: Saleem, N., Chaudhary, M. U., & Ashfaq, F. (2021). Portrayal of Islam and Muslims in Western Media: A
Study of Fox News. Global Mass Communication Review, VI(I), 108-116. https://doi.org/10.31703/gmcr.2021(VI-I).09
Portrayal of Islam and Muslims in Western Media: A Study
of Fox News
Nadia Saleem *
Muhammad Umair Chaudhary †
Fiza Ashfaq ‡
Headings
• Introduction
• Fox News and
Representation of
Islam
• Research Question
• Research
Methodology
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• References
Abstract: The study is aimed to analyze the portrayal of Islam and
Muslims through the content that is being disseminated by western
media all over the world. Nowadays, the perception about any nation,
religion, and society is building through media perspective. Media is
playing a major role to bring peace, war, and alliance among the nations
of the world. The mediated propaganda by western media is leading the
world towards Islamophobia. Muslims are not freely enjoying their rights
in many non-Muslim societies. This study is a content analysis of “Fox
News Report”, “Fox News Alert” and “The Five” programs of Fox News.
The data were examined to identify common terms, words, and patterns
of meaning that come up repeatedly in context with Muslim’s portrayal
in Western media. The result shows that prejudice and prejudgment are
portrayed in western media against Islam by representing it as a religion
of terrorism and extremism.
Key Words: Portrayal, Islamophobia, Stigma, Labeling, Western Media
Introduction
The media has a profound effect on any
society. It is also a source that reflects our
society and laws. It also invites the whole world
to observe it and keeps the people informed of
all kinds of situations (Grossberg et al., 1998).
In remote areas where there are no facilities
like newspapers, TV channels, mobiles,
internet, satellite phones, all kinds of news
reach through radio (Saleem et al., 2019).
Because of this entire situation, it can be said
*
PhD Scholar, School of Media and Mass Communication, Beaconhouse National University, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Email:
shazia.ics@pu.edu.pk
†
Assistant Professor, (IPFP Fellow), Department of Mass Communication, Virtual University of Pakistan, Lahore, Punjab,
Pakistan.
‡
MSc Student, Department of Mass Communication, Virtual University of Pakistan, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.
that in the present era, the media has made the
common man “aware” that an average person
reads the news in the newspaper, or listens to
the news on the radio, or watches on TV. It is
as if the media has become the most important
connection between the government and the
people. According to Harold Lasswell, the
main functions of the media are surveillance of
the environment, correlation of elements of
society, and diffusion of social culture
Portrayal of Islam and Muslims in Western Media: A Study of Fox News
Vol. VI, No. I (Winter 2020) 109
(Alghamdi, 2015). On the other hand, what are
the trends in public? What is the general
opinion, what do the people not think, what
are the problems of the people? The media is
also the one to inform the government of all
these situations (Miller et al., 1979). The first
duty of every institution is to put the national
and public interest first. Criticism must be
positive and constructive, which will give the
government a chance to reform, and the
people will be aware. The media is a powerful
weapon in shaping public opinion. The role of
the media is important in the deterioration or
improvement of any country or other words; it
has had many positive and negative effects on
our lives.
The media of any country improves the
society of that country. Due to this, contacts
with any country have become impossible.
Through media, we can radically change the
economic situation of any country, and with
its proper use, we can improve society, but the
misuse of media power the situation in the
country and the economic system can be
disrupted (Coyne &Leeson, 2004). The media
is a force, and this power should be used to
create awareness among the people and not to
mislead the people. Everyone wants to know
about what is happening in the world, and the
media is playing a great role in disseminating
the news about every happening around the
world. The media not only disseminates the
information but also interprets the image of
the societies.
According to the analysis of Shahid (2020),
our perception of any nation, religion, and
society is building through a media
perspective. Media is playing a great role to
bring peace, war, and alliance among the
nations of the world. If we put a glance towards
the history of the world, then we came to know
how the media made impacts on the friendship
and animosity among the countries and
nations.
Nurullah (2010) and Alghamdi (2015)
briefly discussed the western media’s ways of
presenting Islam in their studies. They impute
the western media for distorting Islam’s image
in the eye of the whole world. Eid& Khan
(2011) described the monopoly of western
media over other media of the world. If a
media has such status on others, then that
media’s reporting has deep impacts on the
whole world.
Previous researches about the portrayal of
Muslims in western media show that how
Muslims are being represented as inhuman
aliens. Western Media consider the Muslims
under the mark (Hardy, 2004; Poole &
Richardson, 2006). In this modern age, each
event is disseminated through the media. As
the media want, the aspects of the event or
incidents have shown to us. After the incident
of 9/11, Islam was portrayed as a violent
religion by western media. The Muslim world
is facing much hatred from the non-Muslim
world (Rehman&Qamar, 2017).
Brown (2019) discussed two incidents that
differentiate the behavior of western media
among the non-white victim and white victim
due to the construction of Islamic terrorists.
They constructed non-white victims as an
“other” while white terrorists and white
victims are “us” or more relatable and
sympathetic. Another recent research has
proved an obvious “political parallelism”
discourse in the portrayal of Islam and
Muslims in international media. The previous
researches have verified that the ideological
Nadia Saleem, Muhammad Umair Chaudhary and Fiza Ashfaq
110 Global Mass Communication Review (GMCR)
philosophy of media has a strong impact on
the portrayal of Islam and Muslims (Umber
&Ghauri, 2020).
In this modern age, each event is shown
through the media. As the media want, the
aspects of the event or incidents have shown to
us. Western media has a great influence on the
information which is going to pass on us.
Western media has a monopoly on the other
media of the world, which are known as the
mainstream media. Western media and
especially Hollywood has a policy to use the
“Muslims” and “terrorist” as synonyms.
Muslims have been represented falsely in many
Hollywood movies (Nurullah, 2010).
Islam has always been grist for the gossip
amongst different religions and elite officials
from the Ottoman period until now. Perhaps,
this long-term stereotypical belief is caused by
the presence of Muslims in different societies.
It has drawn great attention to itself and has
been the main focus of media in the past,
particularly after the post 9/11 tragic era. As per
the policy report of the Muslim Public Affairs
Council 2012, the focus of media was fueled by
the appearance of many extremist and terrorist
groups claiming themselves Islamic. The
western media have portrayed Islam as per
their agenda and desire. This misinterpretation
of Islam has provided an opportunity to
western media to label Muslims as “extremist”,
“terrorist”, and violent (Charles 2011). This
perspective of western media regarding Islam
and Muslims has a great impact on Muslim
communities in the world. Muslims are
bearing the consequences of the wrong
interpretation of Islam by the western media.
The Western media is constantly portraying
Islam, Muslims, and Islamic movements as
some terrorist movements. As per Booth
(2019), it is the western media’s sole agenda to
defame Islam as it preaches equity and peace
and equality. She also discouraged the
repetitive use of the term “clash of
civilizations” that is resulting in anti-Muslim
sentiments among the non-Muslim
communities.
Fox News and Representation of Islam
Fox News is an American-based cable and
satellite channel owned by Fox Entertainment
Group, with Rupert Murdoch as its chairman.
Right from its beginning, it has been criticized
due to multiple controversies and allegations.
This channel is well known for its strategy of
being an enemy of Islam and Muslims. There
are many incidents on which this news
channel reported falsely with biased behavior
toward Islam and Muslims.
1. The most- debated episode in this
scenario is the weird statement by Steve
Emerson, a frequent guest who
participates as an expert on terrorism in
most Fox news programs said that the
many Muslim majority areas in Britain,
including Birmingham, are “no-go
zones” for non-Muslims in Europe as the
Muslim refugees have forcefully
implement radical sharia law and have
forbidden the entry of non-Muslims in
these areas. (2015, Jan 12, Terror in
Paris, Fox News Report)
2. In “fox news alert”, the guest who
developed the CIA’s enhanced
interrogation program and is the author
of enhanced interrogation Dr. James
Mitchell, brutally speaking about Islam
and Muslims and calling Islam the basis
of terrorism. He said that “well, the first
Portrayal of Islam and Muslims in Western Media: A Study of Fox News
Vol. VI, No. I (Winter 2020) 111
thing they have to do is stop being
politically correct you know we the hard
truth is we know how radical violent is
Islam, the spread of Islamist ideology
and it spreads in mosques and other
religious institution; it spreads in
schools and universities and colleges it
spreads by Muslim outreach programs
that pretend that they’re doing outreach
but are spreading radical ideology”.
(2017, June 4, What can be done to stop
the spread of radical Islam? Fox News
alert)
3. In another program, The Five, a co-host
Bob Beckel, criticized the sharia law as a
useless activity by saying, “it’s a goof,
and it was handed down in a bad book.”
(Karen Lewis, 2014, March 14, Muslim
“NOAH” Backlash, The five)
4. After the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris,
Bob Beckel said in the Five programs,
“I’m an Islamophobe; that’s right, you
can call me that all you want.” In
response to the Orlando night club
attack, he emphasized banning the
construction of mosques in America
until terrorism is controlled by the
authorities. “Has any Muslim out there,
any Muslim cleric, any Muslim leader
said anything about this, No they are
coward” (“Erik Wemple, May 24, 2107,
Where are the moderate Muslims in
America? The Five.)
Research Question
Following are the research questions that
were studied in this research.
RQ 1: What kind of prejudice is portrayed in
western media against Islam?
RQ 2: Do western media portray Islam as a
religion of terrorism and extremism?
RQ 3: What kind of labeling being
associated with Islam concerning
prejudice?
Research Methodology
For “Portrayal of Islam and Muslims in
western media”, the content analysis method
was used to find out the purpose and message
of “Fox News Report”, “Fox News Alert “, and
“The Five” programs on Fox news. The
research was focused on interpreting and
understanding the content of these programs
of Fox news towards Islam and Muslims. The
data were carefully observed to find out
common words and patterns of meaning that
were used repeatedly in the selected content.
Only those Fox News Reports, Fox News
Alerts, and The Five programs were included
in the study that was related to the Boko haram
massacre in Nigeria in 2014, the Charlie
Hebdo attack in Paris in 2015, and Orlando
Night Club shooting in 2016. In all three
incidents, the killers were Muslims. The
Christchurch Mosque attack in New Zealand
in 2019 was also studied. This incident was
selected because, in this scenario, the killer was
a white non-Muslim Australian, and the
victims were Muslims. The context and
perspective of media coverage were studied in
reporting Islam and Muslims. The data was
collected through the purposive sampling
technique. The data was collected from Fox
news Archives and Youtube and was further
analyzed by using the content analysis method.
Every single detail of the selected news report
and The five program was studied, including
the choice of words to the descriptions. This
Nadia Saleem, Muhammad Umair Chaudhary and Fiza Ashfaq
112 Global Mass Communication Review (GMCR)
enabled the researcher to identify the words
that were being associated with Muslims and
Islam in Fox news. The common and repetitive
words were identified by creating the word
cloud.
Bokoharam massacre in Nigeria(2014)
A total of 5 news reports in “Fox News Report”
and “Fox News Alert” and two programs on
“The Five” were studied.
Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, France
(2015)
A total of 8 news reports in “Fox News
Report”
and “Fox News Alert” and two programs on
“The Five” were studied.
Orlando night club shooting in the
USA (2016)
A total of 8 news reports in “Fox News Report”
and “Fox News Alert” and three programs on
“The Five” were studied.
Christchurch Mosque attack in New
Zealand (2019)
A total of 9 news reports in “Fox News Report”
and “Fox News Alert” were studied. No
program in the “The five” category was found
on this incident.
Figure 1: Word cloud of most used words about Muslims in Fox News
Table 1. Frequency of the words used in Fox News
Words
Frequency
Terrorist
26
Extremist
09
Muslims
38
Islam
52
Mosques
06
Jihad
05
Jihadis
08
Fundamentalist
05
Portrayal of Islam and Muslims in Western Media: A Study of Fox News
Vol. VI, No. I (Winter 2020) 113
Table 1 shows the frequency of words used
in news coverage of criminal attacks on Fox
News in which the killers were Muslims. The
words with negative connotations were
repeatedly used against Muslims. This is very
much important because, as per the VOX
report 2015, only 38% of Americans claim to
personally know Islam and Muslims, whereas
62% of Americans depend solely on the
information they get from the media. The
projection of Muslims as a terrorist, extremist
and fundamentalists may have a strong impact
on that 62% American.
Discussion
This study has immense importance in the
modern era, as it is obvious that Muslims are
facing hardships because of the terrorist mark
imposed by western media. Islam is fighting a
war for its survival. This stigma turned the
Muslim majority into a defamed minority of
having a violent and extremist plus
fundamentalist approach. Mosques, as the
religious center of Muslims to offer prayers,
were also discussed regarding terrorism and
crime, which is a negative connotation.
Similarly, in basic Islamic teachings, Jihad is
not only a war against evident opponents, but
in the true spirit, it is a war against the evils and
devil. The use of the word Jihad in context with
terrorism has been intensely reinforced in the
media portrayal of terrorist activities (Ramlan
et al., 2016). Such acts are resulting in
Islamophobia that is leading the world towards
hate speech and ultimately to hate crimes.
On the other hand, while covering the
Christchurch Mosque attack in New Zealand
in 2019, the words like terrorist, extremist,
fundamentalist were not used even for a single
time in a very first news report of 3 minutes
and 13 seconds on Fox News. Similarly, in all
other coverage, the accused was labeled as
“shooter” and “white supremacist” not
“terrorist”. The headline of the news was “Mass
shooting at mosques in Christchurch, New
Zealand.” In another news report of 4 minutes
and 21 seconds, the incident was labeled an
“act of terror” while giving stance of White
House. The word “innocent” was used for
Muslim victims only. The findings are
significant because, in this mosque attack,
victims were Muslims, and the killer was a non-
Muslim Australian.
The data analysis confirms that Fox News
shows a clear prejudice against Muslims by
labeling them terrorists, extremists, and
fundamentalists not only in headlines but in
the description too. Similarly, the words Jihad
and Jihadis were also used in negative
connotation; whereas, the non-Muslim killer
was never called a terrorist or extremist by Fox
news. There was a clear difference in the
channel’s policy while discussing and
portraying the Muslims and non-Muslims
killers.
Islam was being presented as a religion of
extremism by Fox News. One of the hosts said
in a live telecast that he was sick of claiming
that Islam is a religion of peace. As per Vox
report 2015, the chief of Fox News once
expressed on Twitter that maybe most of the
Muslims are peaceful, but this cannot be
trustworthy until the Jihadi cancer is not
destructed by them.
Nadia Saleem, Muhammad Umair Chaudhary and Fiza Ashfaq
114 Global Mass Communication Review (GMCR)
Conclusion
To make the Muslims progressed and
developed among the other nation, there is a
need to find out a solution which makes the
western media to stop from presenting a false
representation of Islam.
Basing their study on Dutch voters
interviewed before and after the prosecution of
famous MP Geert Wilders on the charges of
Muslim-baiting and verbal savagery against
Islam, he proves through empirical evidence
that Wilder’s party’s appeal increased after he
has tried for hate speech acts by one to five
percentage points among the Dutch people
who ascetically supported the amalgamation of
ethnic minorities into the larger overarching
Dutch culture (Van Spanje & de Vreese, 2015).
They conclude by calling other researchers to
replicate this study to find the effects of hate
speech against religious minorities prosecution
on the popularity of political parties
throughout the globe so that reliable
conclusions could be drawn (Van Spanje & de
Vreese, 2015).
Miro-llinares and Rodriguez-Sala (2016)
analyzed the disruptive events on social media
so that a violent communication and hate
speech taxonomy could be built under the
overarching theme of studying cyber hate
speech on social media. They focus on the
attack against the Dutch newspaper Charlie
Hebdo (2015) in Paris, which gave rise to a
series of violent communication and hate
messages on Twitter (Miro-Llinares &
Rodriguez-Sala, 2016). Just within five days of
the attack, 255,000 tweets were received with
hateful hashtags like #StopIslam. The authors
concluded that in addition to the amount of
hate speech received on a day-to-day basis,
disruptive events seem to further increase their
number, thereby making it easier to identify
different spatial, temporal, and textual patterns
(Miro-Llinares& Rodriguez-Sala, 2016). Using
this approach, researchers can classify messages
containing violence and hatred in a very
precise manner (Miro-Llinares& Rodriguez-
Sala, 2016).
The problem of Islamophobia has come
out because of the partial and prejudiced
behavior of western media toward Islam and
Muslims. Muslim communities all over the
world, whether they belong to Muslim
countries or non-Muslim countries, are facing
obstacles on the way of their progress and
interaction with other nations. There is a need
to take the initiative by the Muslim
community all over the world to encounter
this phenomenon with true spirit.
Portrayal of Islam and Muslims in Western Media: A Study of Fox News
Vol. VI, No. I (Winter 2020) 115
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